​Between 1962-1970, the Beatles officially released 211 songs. 

Of those, 186 were originals while 25 were covers. 

Of those 186 originals...

John Lennon was the primary author of 77 (41.4%):

• 'Please Please Me'
• 'Ask Me Why'
• 'There's A Place'
• 'Do You Want To Know A Secret'
• 'Misery'
• 'Thank You Girl'
• 'It Won't Be Long'
• 'Little Child'
• 'All I've Got To Do'
• 'Not A Second Time'
• 'This Boy'
• 'You Can't Do That'
• 'I Should Have Known Better'
• 'Tell Me Why'
• 'If I Fell'
• 'I Call Your Name'
• 'A Hard Day's Night'
• 'I'll Cry Instead'
• 'I'll Be Back'
• 'Any Time At All'
• 'When I Get Home'
• 'I'm A Loser'
• 'Every Little Thing'
• 'I Don't Want To Spoil The Party'
• 'No Reply'
• 'I Feel Fine'
• 'Ticket To Ride'
• 'Yes It Is'
• 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away'
• 'You're Going To Lose That Girl'
• 'Help!'
• 'It's Only Love'
• 'Run For Your Life'
• 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)'
• 'Day Tripper'
• 'In My Life'
• 'Nowhere Man'
• 'Girl'
• 'Tomorrow Never Knows'
• 'Rain'
• 'Doctor Robert'
• 'And Your Bird Can Sing'
• 'I'm Only Sleeping'
• 'She Said She Said'
• 'Strawberry Fields Forever'
• 'Good Morning Good Morning'
• 'Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!'
• 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds'
• 'You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)'
• 'All You Need Is Love'
• 'I Am The Walrus'
• 'Across The Universe'
• 'Hey Bulldog'
• 'Revolution 1'
• 'Revolution 9'
• 'Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey'
• 'Good Night'
• 'Revolution'
• 'Cry Baby Cry'
• 'Sexy Sadie'
• 'Yer Blues'
• 'Dear Prudence'
• 'Glass Onion'
• 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun'
• 'I'm So Tired'
• 'The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill'
• 'Julia'
• 'Dig A Pony'
• 'Don't Let Me Down'
• 'One After 909'
• 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)'
• 'The Ballad Of John And Yoko'
• 'Come Together'
• 'Sun King'
• 'Mean Mr. Mustard'
• 'Polythene Pam'
• 'Because'

Paul McCartney was the primary author of 72 (38.7%):

• 'Love Me Do'
• 'P. S. I Love You'
• 'I Saw Her Standing There'
• 'Hold Me Tight'
• 'All My Loving'
• 'Can't Buy Me Love'
• 'And I Love Her'
• 'Things We Said Today'
• 'What You're Doing'
• 'Eight Days A Week'
• 'She's A Woman'
• 'I'll Follow The Sun'
• 'Another Girl'
• 'The Night Before'
• 'Tell Me What You See'
• 'I've Just Seen A Face'
• 'I'm Down'
• 'Yesterday'
• 'Wait'
• 'Drive My Car'
• 'We Can Work It Out'
• 'I'm Looking Through You'
• 'Michelle'
• 'Got To Get You Into My Life'
• 'You Won't See Me'
• 'Paperback Writer'
• 'Eleanor Rigby'
• 'For No One'
• 'Yellow Submarine'
• 'Good Day Sunshine'
• 'Here There And Everywhere'
• 'When I'm Sixty-Four'
• 'Penny Lane'
• 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'
• 'Fixing A Hole'
• 'Lovely Rita'
• 'Getting Better'
• 'She's Leaving Home'
• 'With A Little Help From My Friends'
• 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)'
• 'Magical Mystery Tour'
• 'All Together Now'
• 'Your Mother Should Know'
• 'The Fool On The Hill'
• 'Hello Goodbye'
• 'Lady Madonna'
• 'Blackbird'
• 'Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da'
• 'Helter Skelter'
• 'Hey Jude'
• 'Mother Nature's Son'
• 'Rocky Raccoon'
• 'Wild Honey Pie'
• 'Back In The USSR'
• 'I Will'
• 'Birthday'
• 'Honey Pie'
• 'Martha My Dear'
• 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road?'
• 'I've Got A Feeling'
• 'Get Back'
• 'Two Of Us'
• 'Let It Be'
• 'The Long And Winding Road'
• 'Oh! Darling'
• 'You Never Give Me Your Money'
• 'Her Majesty'
• 'Golden Slumbers'
• 'Carry That Weight'
• 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' 
• 'The End'
• 'She Came In Through the Bathroom Window'

22 (11.8%) were written by George Harrison:

• 'Don't Bother Me'
• 'I Need You'
• 'You Like Me Too Much'
• 'If I Needed Someone'
• 'Think For Yourself'
• 'Taxman'
• 'I Want To Tell You'
• 'Love You To'
• 'Only A Northern Song'
• 'Within You Without You'
• 'It's All Too Much'
• 'Blue Jay Way'
• 'The Inner Light'
• 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'
• 'Piggies'
• 'Savoy Truffle'
• 'Long Long Long'
• 'For You Blue'
• 'Old Brown Shoe'
• 'Something'
• 'Here Comes The Sun'
• 'I Me Mine'

10 (5.4%) were true 50/50 Lennon/McCartney collaborations:

• 'From Me To You'
• 'She Loves You'
• 'I'll Get You'
• 'I Wanna Be Your Man'
• 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'
• 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You'
• 'Baby's In Black'
• 'The Word'
• 'A Day In The Life'
• 'Baby, You're A Rich Man'

2 (1.1%) were credited to Richard Starkey (aka Ringo Starr):

• 'Don't Pass Me By'
• 'Octopus's Garden'

2 (1.1%) were credited to Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starkey:

• 'Flying'
• 'Dig It'

1 (0.5%) was credited to Lennon/McCartney/Starkey:

• 'What Goes On'

Friday the 13th sees me at the Wood Dale Public Library in Illinois:
​
Friday, 13 May 2016, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Wood Dale Public Library, 520 N Wood Dale Rd, Wood Dale, IL
From the Shadow of JFK: The Rise of Beatlemania in America
Many Beatles authors and scholars have cited John F. Kennedy's assassination on 22 November 1963 as a cause of the Beatles' sudden popularity in the United States in early 1964. Their logic: Kennedy's assassination made America sad, then the Beatles made America happy again. But this commonly accepted answer is overly simplistic. America has suffered numerous tragedies and rebounded each time, but the popularity and staying power of the Beatles remains unmatched in American history. The real answer is that Kennedy's life and death inadvertently primed the nation for the Beatles' arrival and success. This 60-minute program will explain how and why.

​On 10 December 2012, I blogged about the formal structure of 'She Loves You', analyzing it as follows:

          Chorus      0:00-0:13
          Verse 1      0:13-0:25
          Bridge       0:25-0:38
          Verse 2     0:38-0:51
          Bridge       0:51-1:04
          Chorus     1:04-1:16
          Verse 3    1:16-1:29
          Bridge      1:29-1:42
          Chorus     1:42-2:06
          Coda (chorus)   2:06-2:21

But now this analysis strikes me as mistaken because the structural landmarks from verse to bridge (0:25, 0:51, 1:29) seem less important than the landmarks following each of these bridges (0:38, 1:04, 1:42). In other words, I can't justify the same macro-scale structural distinction and labeling for these landmarks when one is so much more structurally significant than the other. I need to illustrate these landmarks in my analysis in such a way that articulates both macro- and micro-scale echelons, thus a secondary level of analysis is needed to reflect this multi-tiered hierarchy of structural significance. I indicate this in my revised analysis below through indentation:

(B') Introductory Chorus 1       0:00-0:13
      (a) statement (2)
      (a') revision (2)
      (a'') revision (2)
      (b) conclusion (2)

(A) Verse 1 + Refrain            0:13-0:38
      (c) statement (4)
      (c) restatement (4)
      (d) Refrain: statement (4)
      (d') Refrain: revision (4)

(A) Verse 2 + Refrain            0:38-1:04

(B) Chorus 2                1:04-1:16
      (a) statement (2)
      (a') revision (2)
      (e) conclusion (4)

(A) Verse 3 + Refrain           1:16-1:42

(B'') Concluding Chorus 3        1:42-2:21
      (a) statement (2)
      (a') revision (2)
      (e) conclusion (4)
      (e) conclusion (4)
      (e') conclusion (4)
      (a) statement (2)
      (a') revision (2)
      (b') conclusion (1)

This revised analysis illustrates the macro-scale formal design (in this case what I've come to call a "deceptive AABA" because the B isn't a bridge bu a chorus), while simultaneously articulating the micro-scale structure of each section. For that reason, it's a more nuanced and accurate analysis than what I had done earlier.

'She Loves You' is one of the songs I will play as part of tomorrow's presentation in Oak Park, Illinois:

Thursday, 12 May 2016, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake Street, Oak Park, IL
From the Shadow of JFK: The Rise of Beatlemania in America
Many Beatles authors and scholars have cited John F. Kennedy's assassination on 22 November 1963 as a cause of the Beatles' sudden popularity in the United States in early 1964. Their logic: Kennedy's assassination made America sad, then the Beatles made America happy again. But this commonly accepted answer is overly simplistic. America has suffered numerous tragedies and rebounded each time, but the popularity and staying power of the Beatles remains unmatched in American history. The real answer is that Kennedy's life and death inadvertently primed the nation for the Beatles' arrival and success. This 60-minute program will explain how and why.

Tomorrow I'll be delivering one of my favorite presentations at the Itasca Community Library in Illinois:

​Wednesday, 11 May 2016, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Itasca Community Library, 500 West Irving Park Road, Itasca, IL
The Influence of American Rock 'n' Roll on the Beatles
Before the Beatles ever wrote their own songs or performed on stage, they were inspired to do so by American rock 'n' roll records. This 90-minute multimedia program will illustrate the influence of Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and other American recording artists from the 1950's on the Beatles through side-by-side comparisons and musical analysis of Beatles covers and original recordings.

The ultimate conclusion of this program is that 1950s American Rock 'n' Roll and 1960s British Rock were both revolutionary genres (meaning both genres defined change), but they realized those revolutions in very different ways.

The primary innovations of 1950s American Rock 'n' Roll were social rather than musical.

Rock 'n' Roll brought together the two great cultures that define America: White America provided Country and Western, Black America provided rhythm and blues, and it's the fusion of those two cultures that births Rock 'n' Roll.

Furthermore, Rock 'n' Roll brings these two cultures together not as adversaries - with one race asserting its dominance over the other, as had been the case for a long time throughout America history - but as equals, with White and Black America contributing equally to the birth of this new musical genre. In that sense, Rock 'n' Roll anticipated the Civil Rights Movement of the subsequent decade.

But where Rock 'n' Roll helped break down racial barriers, it helped build up generational barriers. At a time when Youth Culture was on the rise, Rock 'n' Roll provided a platform which supported young people's rebellious attitude. Older generations consistently found it difficult to understand, enjoy, or even appreciate the appeal of this youth-centric music. In that sense, Rock 'n' Roll reinforced generational divides.

Both of these social relationships - the collapsing of racial barriers, and the reinforcing of generational barriers - are far more important to Rock 'n' Roll than any specifically musical relationships, which tend to extremely simple. One common criticism of Rock 'n' Roll is that it only has three chords and a beat. That's not far from the truth because Rock 'n' Roll doesn't need anything more musically sophisticated.

1960s British Rock, by contrast, WAS a musical revolution. Sixties rockers in general and the Beatles specifically imbued their music with a degree of musical sophistication distinctly absent from their counterparts from the prior decade. 'I Want to Hold Your Hand', for example, modulates to the subdominant in the bridges - a technique never used by any Rock 'n' Roll song I can think of off the top of my head. Similarly, 'She Loves You', 'P. S. I Love You', and 'Please Please Me' all employs nondiatonic chord progressions rarely heard in Rock 'n' Roll.

Furthermore, the Beatles incorporated classical instrumentation to supplement the standard guitars, bass, drums, and vocals: on "Yesterday", a string quartet; on "Every Little Thing", orchestral timpani; on "Norwegian Wood", an Indian sitar. This helped provide Rock with a degree of respectability that Rock 'n' Roll neither had nor wanted.

Rock picked up where Rock 'n' Roll left off, but took the music in a different direction - one LESS focused on SOCIAL relationships, and one MORE focused on MUSICAL relationships. Moreover, it seems unlikely that this change in direction was a conscious choice. When asked in a 1963 interview how the Beatles' music differed from Rock 'n' Roll, George Harrison insisted, "It doesn't really." "It's just a way of classifying it," confirmed Paul, "but I don't think the music is very different." (Spizer, page 61)

Indeed, I can't imagine the band sitting down during a rehearsal or recording session and saying, "Elvis never employed a subdominant modulation in his songs. Why don't we add one to this song to give it a greater degree of musical sophistication?" Of course it didn't happen like that! The Beatles were just trying to write the best songs they could. Only in hindsight do we come to realize these subconscious differences between genres and why those differences are significant.

Unlike the largely subconscious compositional sophistication, the experimental and innovative recording techniques employed on albums like Rubber Soul (1965), Revolver (1966), and Sgt. Pepper (1967) WERE conscious, and thus illustrates the band's deliberate attempts to innovate.

In that sense, the Beatles didn't just reimagine Rock 'n' Roll, as one book's subtitle suggests (which implies a conscious thought process, which is true for the recording techniques but misses the compositional sophistication of their output), as they did reinvent Rock 'n' Roll - a change in direction which was partly conscious and partly subconscious.

I just received a phone call from the Bookfield Library in Illinois (where I will be speaking on Saturday afternoon) asking to bump up the start time from 3pm to 2pm due to a typo on the flyers advertising the program. This will prevent the majority of the audience (who will have learned of the program through the flyers) from arriving an hour early, but might cause problems for anybody who learned of the program through my website or newsletters. I have changed my website calendar to the new start time, but my May newsletter was sent three weeks ago and so can't be revised. Anybody planning to attend who is confused over the start time should call the library for clarification at (708) 485-6917.

In the meantime, the tour continues tomorrow in Waukesha, Wisconsin:

Tuesday, 10 May 2016, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Waukesha Public Library, 321 Wisconsin Ave. Waukesha, WI
The Beatles' Alter Ego, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Since its release in 1967, the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has often been regarded as the single greatest rock album ever made, and one of the first rock concept albums. This 90-minute multimedia presentation will observe and discuss the landmark album track by track, citing musical and historical precedents, and illustrating the development of the songs through excerpts from interviews with the band members and clips of discarded takes.

My presentation Friday night at the Rockford Public Library was followed by a performance by the tribute band Meet the Beatles, albeit by just John and George (Paul and Ringo couldn't make it for whatever reason).

To be perfectly honest, their set started off slowly. Granted, of course, they were missing half their band! But eventually things clicked and they put on a really good show, delivering especially inspired renditions of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"and "I Am The Walrus". They closed with "Twist and Shout", blending it seamlessly with "La Bamba", which incorporates the same chords. Overall, it was a good show - one of the best tribute bands I've seen. I look forward to seeing them again at Abbey Road on the River later this month.

Today being Mothers' Day, is an off day for me, but the tour will pick up where it left off tomorrow in West Allis, Wisconsin:

Monday, 9 May 2016, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
West Allis Public Library, 7421 W National Ave, Milwaukee, WI
The Beatles: Band of the Sixties
Explore the music of The Beatles in this 60-minute multimedia presentation (part history and part musical analysis) spanning the full 1960's: beginning with the band's seminal visits to Hamburg, continuing through Beatlemania, and concluding with Abbey Road. The program will be supplemented with audio clips of music and excerpts from interviews with the band members.

At the NY Beatles Fest last month, I noticed how many other authors set up banners to attract attention from the perusing crowds. Jude Kessler, author of The John Lennon Series, had beautiful large posters advertising her books. But all I had were my little 8.5 x 11" sign holders. I decided I needed something bigger to draw attention, and so designed and ordered this 18 x 36" banner through Vistaprint:

I'm quite pleased with it, although I don't understand why they left the bar code on the lower right corner. (They were supposed to trim off that edge....)
​​
Anyway, the banner will be on display tomorrow afternoon at the Winnetka, Illinois public library:

Saturday, 7 May 2016, 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Winnetka-Northfield Public Library District, 768 Oak St, Winnetka, IL
The Beatles: Band of the Sixties
Explore the music of The Beatles in this 60-minute multimedia presentation (part history and part musical analysis) spanning the full 1960's: beginning with the band's seminal visits to Hamburg, continuing through Beatlemania, and concluding with Abbey Road. The program will be supplemented with audio clips of music and excerpts from interviews with the band members.

In February, while touring Florida, I met a couple from Rockford, Illinois at the Wyndham Ocean Walk hotel in Daytona Beach. I mentioned I would be speaking on the Beatles at the Rockford library in May, and they expressed an interest in attending. Hopefully tomorrow I'll meet those friends again:

Friday, 6 May 2016, 6:00-7:00 p.m.
Nordlof Center, 118 N. Main St, Rockford, IL
The Beatles: Band of the Sixties
Explore the music of The Beatles in this 60-minute multimedia presentation (part history and part musical analysis) spanning the full 1960's: beginning with the band's seminal visits to Hamburg, continuing through Beatlemania, and concluding with Abbey Road. The program will be supplemented with audio clips of music and excerpts from interviews with the band members.

The latest BEATLES MINUTE is now available for viewing on YouTube:

My May tour initiates this evening with "The Music of Star Wars" at the Kenosha Public Library, then continues tomorrow at the Batavia Public Library:
​
Thursday, 5 May 2016, 7:00-8:00 p.m.
Batavia Public Library, 10 S Batavia Ave, Batavia, IL
The Beatles: Band of the Sixties
Explore the music of The Beatles in this 60-minute multimedia presentation (part history and part musical analysis) spanning the full 1960's: beginning with the band's seminal visits to Hamburg, continuing through Beatlemania, and concluding with Abbey Road. The program will be supplemented with audio clips of music and excerpts from interviews with the band members.